Buena Vista to Ashby Gap

After a wonderful 5 zeroes I made it back onto the trail Tuesday evening.  I was picked up at the airport by my friend Snausage and his friend Molly.  I was so well fed in Roanoke by Snausage and his roommate Alex, who are chefs by trade, that the walking was slow going and I made it only 5 miles that first night.  The next couple of days I struggled a bit just getting back into the swing of things and dealing with some heavy rain.  I did make it to shelters a couple of times before real heavy downpours occurred.  One of these shelters was called 'The Priest'.and while I say there for 3 hours I was able to read a series of confessions left in the shelter register by other hikers... Most having to do with food or pooping, quite entertaining reading to pass the rainy afternoon away.  On about the 4th day of this stretch I hit Shenandoah national park.  It was an interesting stretch of trail to say the least.  The trail crosses skyline drive every couple of miles so when it was sunny there were plenty of people out.  I met up with Patches and hiked with her for a couple of the days through the Shenandoah.  This was awesome for so many reasons!  First of all her parents were there to support her on this stretch do I experienced an amazing amount of trail magic, complete with camp pad Thai, s'mores, etc...  Another huge perk was that the miles went by quite quickly with somebody to talk to.  After a few days with Patches we caught up with Chuck Wagon and later that same day Patches had to head out to an outfitter.  So for my last couple days of this stretch I hung out with him, drank a blackberry milkshake at the last of the waysides to make sure I got the whole Shenandoah experience, saw 8 bear, got great weather, was treated to a couple of nice wide open views, and got to eat his camp made raspberry cobbler at a shelter one night!!  It was a really fun stretch for me, lots of people around for the most part but it will take me awhile to catch them because I am now in the middle of another planned 5 zeroes... An awesome break for a family reunion up in Montana!